Share prices started December on a strong note as index surged 129.04 points on Monday on technical rebound after last week’s decline.
Philippine shares closed at 6,742.89, up by 1.95 percent while the broader all shares index also rose 50.52 points or 1.35 percent to close at 3,789.60.
Aside from bargain hunting Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.’s (Metrobank) research team said investors will also keeping an eye on the inflation rate for November 2024, which is projected by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to range between 2.2 percent and 3 percent.
The higher November inflation is largely driven by food supply issues caused by typhoons, increasing electricity costs, and the weakening of peso against the US dollar.
The BSP forecast, however, is still in line with the 2 percent to 4 percent target range.
All indices ended in green led by services which advanced by 3.53 percent followed by holding firms which rose 3.33 percent.
Advancers edged decliners 109 to 80.
Value turnover reached P4.37 billion.
Foreigners, however, were still net sellers with net outflows at P77.68 million.
International Container Terminal Services Inc. was the top index, rising 5.41 percent to P390 per share while Universal Robina Corp. was at the bottom, declining by 2.09 percent to P77.30 apiece.
Meanwhile, Asian markets rose across Asia on Monday with traders cheered by healthy Chinese data, while the euro and Paris stocks tumbled as a budget standoff in France fueled concerns about the eurozone’s second-biggest economy.
Traders began the month on the front foot after a rollercoaster ride since Donald Trump’s re-election and warning that he will hit China, Canada and Mexico with hefty tariffs.
They took their cue from New York, where the Dow and S&P 500 both ended at record highs in a holiday-shortened session.
Hong Kong and Shanghai were among the best performers after data showed Chinese manufacturing activity expanded at a faster clip than expected in November.
The purchasing managers index figures provided some hope that the world’s number-two economy was turning a corner after a long-running slowdown, with analysts pointing to a raft of support measures unveiled at the end of September.
“The last two months of PMI data offered early signs of green shoots following the recent policy pivot and subsequent stimulus programs,” said Anna Zhou and Helen Qiao at Bank of America Global Research.
“We expect policymakers to step up easing measures next year, including the continuation of the equipment upgrade and consumer goods subsidy programs, which should help support the manufacturing sector amid deteriorating external demand.”
Some commentators also pointed to optimism that Trump could take a more pragmatic approach to tariffs, with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum saying after a phone call with the Republican: “There will not be a potential tariff war.”
Still, investors were keeping a wary eye on developments as the US president-elect puts his cabinet together.
“Advanced Northeast Asian economies consistently run merchandise trade surpluses with the US,” said analysts at Moody’s Analytics.
“While falling short of China’s $280 billion surplus with the US, or the EU’s $207 billion surplus, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan each run surpluses large enough to notice, putting them in the firing line of new tariffs.”
There were also gains on Monday in Sydney, Mumbai, Singapore, Taipei, Manila and Bangkok.
Tokyo rose as the yen held recent gains around 150 per dollar, as bets increase on a Bank of Japan interest rate hike after last week’s forecast-topping Tokyo inflation report.
BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said in an interview with the Nikkei published Sunday that increases were “nearing in the sense that economic data are on track”.
Paris stocks shed more than one percent and the euro sat around 14-month lows on concerns about France’s budget standoff.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces the risk of being deposed by a hostile National Assembly as his government presents a social security financing plan Monday that has the opposition up in arms.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said in a Sunday newspaper that her party would not necessarily vote to topple Barnier’s government — so long as he agreed to negotiate.
Le Pen’s parliamentary bloc holds the key to the survival of the minority centre-right administration and in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, she insisted her position was to “remain constructive”.
But if Barnier refused to negotiate with her party, he would have taken the “decision to trigger the vote of no confidence” himself, she said.
Shares in London and Frankfurt opened slightly lower.
